Years of onscreen jokes suggest Walliams’ reputation was ‘in plain sight’ within industry, insider says

References raise questions over whether claims about bankable stars have been ignored by entertainment industry

The comedy sketch opens in a doctor’s office, with a trouserless David Walliams apparently being treated for a fictional sexually transmitted disease. The doctor tells him it is bad news and he needs to contact “everyone you’ve been intimate with over the last year”.

The camera closes in on the comedian’s shocked expression before he gasps: “Everyone?”

He is then seen travelling from one celebrity home to the next to inform them of his condition. It includes appearances from Kate Moss, Gwyneth Paltrow, fellow comedian Alan Carr, Clare Balding, Friends star David Schwimmer and Hugh Grant.

The sketch, which formed part of the BBC’s Comic Relief campaign in 2013, was one of a number of apparent public nods to Walliams’ alleged promiscuity made within the TV and comedy worlds over more than 20 years.

Those references have again raised questions over whether claims about bankable stars have been ignored or indulged by those industries. It comes after the Guardian and ITV News published allegations by several women that Walliams used his power and celebrity status to prey on young women and teenagers for sex. Walliams, 55, denies any wrongdoing.

The same questions have been asked after the conviction of Russell Brand for rape and sexual assault, given he and others made numerous references to his sexual advances towards women.

In Walliams’ case, the most striking reference came in 2004 at the British Comedy Awards, when host Jonathan Ross noted that the event was now 15 years old. “And like all 15-year-olds, it’s drunk, it’s unpredictable and it’s probably going home with David Walliams,” he said, with the camera panning to Walliams.

The exchange has already received widespread attention after the allegations against Walliams, which include accounts from two women who said they first met the star when they were 15 years old.

Ross has already stated that it is now “deeply shocking” to revisit the footage of the joke, which he said was submitted to him by the event’s scriptwriting team. He said he believed the punchline was a reference to the fact Walliams had publicly dated younger women “exaggerated for comic effect”.

TV insiders have pointed out that the joke would have been seen by several people involved in the production before it reached Ross, to be delivered before the cameras. An insider said it appeared to be a “degree of enabling” inside the industry.

The comedy awards exchange came in the same year that Walliams appeared on Scott Mills’ BBC Radio 1 show, when the host asked him: “You know what your image is, it’s kind of ‘womaniser’. And when you meet people, do the blokes try to keep you away from their girlfriends?”

Walliams replied: “What – I’m some sort of rabid animal? No, I’m a gentleman. But no, I just … I love the company of women, you see?”

Five years later, Walliams appeared on Carr’s Channel 4 talkshow, Chatty Man. Carr observed Walliams was “a bit like an illegal taxi driver: you lure [women] into a false sense of security and then you pounce”, referencing Walliams’ camp persona.

Other prominent comedians made references to Walliams’ pursuit of women. In 2006, at the launch of the second series of Britain’s Next Top Model, Jimmy Carr said in an interview with ITN: “I’m only here really to meet David Walliams’ next conquest … Is that the prize, to get a go on David Walliams? Or do they get a modelling contract?”

References to Walliams’ reputation have also spilled out across the wider media. In 2021, in the BBC’s show Motherland, a character states: “I’d like to be a dad and a children’s author – a bit like David Walliams, but less sinister.”

Lawyers acting for Walliams said the comedian had made no secret of the fact that during a period of his life “he enjoyed the company of women and acknowledges that this was a popular topic of the (tabloid) press”.

“[Walliams] also accepts that both he and others have joked about this period of his life. These are jokes … and are not statements of fact. Many of the jokes that you have referred to were written or delivered by [Walliams’] good friends.”

TV insiders say the references do not suggest those involved in the jokes and comments were aware of specific incidents involving Walliams. However, one did say it suggested that a degree of awareness about his reputation “is there, in plain sight of everyone”.

Some industry figures did raise concerns, including comedian Lucy Beaumont. She has explained that a young TV worker told her that he was asked to take young women to Walliams’ dressing room. Similar allegations emerged during the Guardian’s investigation. Beaumont did not witness any worrying behaviour herself.

Even Beaumont, who is an established comedian who has appeared on the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors, said she fears that speaking out would affect her TV career because people “lose work” for doing so.

“It’s high-pressured, there’s lots of money involved,” she told Sky News. “You’re very replaceable. There’s lots of other people who can do your job. That’s what makes you careful about what you say.

“My only point is to try and change things, because this has been on my mind for years and years.”